Follow us on social media:
Runtime: 10:12
0:00 GM’s Cruise Recalls 950 Driverless Vehicles
1:02 Renault & Nissan Complete New Alliance Deal
1:46 Renault Gives Free Shares to Workers
2:57 Study: AM Radio Mandate Will Cost Automakers $3.8 Billion
4:24 GM & Stellantis Invest in Rare Earth Free Magnets
5:28 Audi Begins EV Motor Production for New Platform
6:09 Hyundai Plans to Build e-VTOLs In U.S.
6:51 Honda Reveals More Motorcycle E-Clutch Details
7:47 Toyota To Reveal Crown SUV Next Week
Visit our sponsors to thank them for their support of Autoline Daily: Bridgestone, BorgWarner, Intrepid Control Systems, Schaeffler and Teijin.
This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
GM’S CRUISE RECALLS 950 DRIVERLESS VEHICLES
The bad news continues for GM’s autonomous unit Cruise. The company, along with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, announced it’s recalling 950 of its driverless vehicles across the U.S. and it could recall more. That’s because the collision detection subsystem of its automated software may not respond properly after a crash. Cruise says it has deployed an over-the-air update to fix the issue for its supervised test vehicles and it says all of its driverless vehicles will be repaired before they go back into service. This is the latest in a string of bad news for Cruise. Last month, the California DMV suspended its driverless permits in the state, after one of Cruise’s vehicles was involved in an accident with a pedestrian. And that incident is also being investigated by NHTSA.
RENAULT & NISSAN COMPLETE NEW ALLIANCE DEAL
Renault and Nissan have officially completed their new alliance deal, which will make them more equal partners. Renault cut its stake in Nissan from 43% to 15% by transferring 28% of Nissan’s shares into a French trust. Nissan was previously unhappy with their partnership because Renault had more power even though Nissan is the bigger company. So earlier this year, the two companies agreed to a deal to change that structure. Renault agreed to cut its shares in Nissan and also give Nissan full voting rights for the first time, while Nissan agreed to invest $660 million into Renault’s EV and software division called Ampere.
RENAULT GIVES FREE SHARES TO WORKERS
And in other Renault news, it’s giving its employees some skin in the game. For the second year in a row, it handed out free shares in the company. Later this month over 95,000 workers will get 8 free Renault shares. It also offered additional shares to purchase at a 30% discount, which attracted over 38,000 employees. In total, they invested over 33 million euros in the share purchase program and when everything is all added up, they’ll control 5.25% of Renault’s shares. And by the end of the decade it would like to increase that to 10%. Renault says this shows the commitment of its employees and their confidence in the company’s strategic direction. I say it also gets you some fresh investors and employees who are less likely to complain about moves the company makes that benefit shareholders, which is something we heard a lot about during the recent UAW strikes. But Renault also runs the risk of ticking off a lot of workers if its strategic direction doesn’t pan out.
STUDY: AM RADIO MANDATE WILL COST AUTOMAKERS $3.8 BILLION
As we’ve reported, there’s a big battle in the U.S. over keeping AM radio in new vehicles. At least seven automakers don’t offer AM in their EVs because they say electromagnetic interference from EV motors distort AM signals. However, lawmakers say AM radio needs to remain in vehicles because of its reliability during emergency situations. So, they’ve introduced bipartisan bills in Congress to mandate AM radio in all new vehicles. Automakers oppose the legislation and a new study from the Center for Automotive Research says it will be costly if AM is mandated. The report, which was done in partnership with the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, says it could cost up to $3.8 billion through 2030 to prevent AM signals from being disrupted in EVs. One automaker estimated shielding costs of $35 to $50 and filtering costs of $15 to $20 per vehicle. That’s why automakers want to ditch AM and offer digital or satellite services instead.
GM & STELLANTIS INVEST IN RARE EARTH FREE MAGNETS
GM and Stellantis invested in a company that’s developing magnets without any rare-earth minerals. Like the recent electric motor revealed by Renault and the supplier Valeo for future EVs, which is also rare earth free, they’re trying to reduce their dependence on foreign sources, mainly China, for critical EV materials. It also helps that they can cut costs and reduce their carbon footprints. But unlike the electric motor from Renault and Valeo, which ditched permanent magnets in favor of a wound hairpin motor design, Niron Magnets, the company GM and Stellantis invested in, is developing permanent magnets with “automotive-grade power” and no rare earths. Instead its Clean Earth Magnet technology is based on iron nitride, which is more affordable and abundant than rare earth materials. The investment in Niron Magnets will help it scale its production and commercial operations.
AUDI BEGINS EV MOTOR PRODUCTION FOR NEW PLATFORM
And speaking of EV component production, Audi announced that it started making electric motors for the new PPE architecture, which is a big deal because the models that come from that platform are the ones that have been delayed several times due to its software issues. Models like the all-electric Porsche Macan and Audi Q6 e-tron were supposed to have launched at the end of 2021, but now they won’t enter production until the end of the year and there’s still no word on what software system they’ll be running. Audi says once its e-motor site in Hungary reaches series production, it will build up to 2,000 units a day with three shifts.
HYUNDAI PLANS TO BUILD E-VTOLS IN U.S.
The Hyundai Group is serious about launching an eVTOL or electric vertical and takeoff landing aircraft service in the United States. In an interview with Bloomberg, the CEO of Supernal, Hyundai’s air mobility division, said it is planning to build a manufacturing facility in the U.S. to produce flying taxis. Supernal will unveil a prototype at CES in January and the company says it will be capable of flying 120 MPH, holding up four passengers and a pilot. Test flights are planned for December of 2024 and it is aiming to launch its service in the U.S. in 2028, followed by Europe shortly after that.
HONDA REVEALS MORE MOTORCYCLE E-CLUTCH DETAILS
Honda provided a few more details about its new e-Clutch for manual transmission motorcycles, which makes it so riders don’t have to use the clutch lever on the handle bars. When a gear is selected, two motors inside an actuator unit operate the clutch and the system will also control ignition timing and fuel injection to make the gear shift as smooth as possible. Riders can even adjust how hard they have to hit the pedal to shift gears. And they can still use the standard clutch lever, which disengages the e-Clutch for a few seconds or they can shut off the system completely. Honda is already launching models available with the new e-Clutch and it says the system only weighs 2 kilograms or 4.4 pounds and the clutch and transmission hardware are not different from other motorcycles, so there’s a lot of potential applications.
TOYOTA TO REVEAL CROWN SUV NEXT WEEK
Toyota teased that it’s going to reveal the Crown SUV for North America on November 14th. I originally thought this was going to be a U.S. version of the Crown Sport, which Toyota is taking orders for right now in Japan. But the Crown SUV clearly has different taillights, so this could end up being the true SUV of the Crown lineup, what Toyota has previously called the Crown Estate. But obviously, we’ll know more soon and we’ll be right here to report on it.
But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for making Autoline a part of your day.
Thanks to our partner for embedding Autoline Daily on its website: WardsAuto.com
Let’s get into the details for Cruise pedestrian accident. A hit and run driver hit a pedestrian, sending the person into the path of a Cruise autonomous vehicle. The Cruise vehicle braked aggressively and came to a stop but still hit the person. The pedestrian was pinned under one of the Cruises tires. The Cruise vehicle then pulled to the right to get out of traffic, pulling the person about 20 feet forward.
Interesting that our 2017 Chevrolet Bolt has AM radio. I guess it was long before OEMs forgot how to make them. Everything that anyone doesn’t want to do seems to cost billions even if it’s still being done.
The. cost of AM Radio in EVs that us quoted is BS. The cost of shielding and filtering will end up being way less. The cost they quote has to be if you if I went and bought the parts and had then installed.
If if cost $5 a vehicle in mass production that would be a lot,
They put satellite radios in almost everything, but that is probably because the OEMs get kickbacks from SXM when people subscribe. Yeah, it costs almost nothing to put AM in cars, and I use it sometimes, for local stations. Also, it’s fun to DX at night once in a while with the car parked. Most AM car radios have pretty good performance.
Where ever we go during the day,behind the wheel included,our cell phones are always present. If there was some type of emergency, would it not be simpler to connect with us via our phone,rather than over the radio? The radio many or may not be on,but the phone always.
I use AM radio every single time I get in my car. My car is old enough to not have Satellite radio, but even if it did, I’d still listen to AM.
Not to mention, we know that any costs incurred by the automakers who have ditched AM to put it back would be passed on to the customer anyway. So what’s the big fuss?
About the report “GM & STELLANTIS INVEST IN RARE EARTH FREE MAGNETS.” My web link is to a March IEEE article about Tesla:
“Tesla’s investor day on 1 March began with . . . “We have designed our next drive unit, which uses a permanent-magnet motor, to not use any rare-earth elements at all,” declared Colin Campbell, Tesla’s director of power-train engineering.”
I get the impression many manufacturers pay close attention to Tesla reports for ‘free’ R&D.
My mother once bought a Ford Fairlane with AM only radio. I think it took me years to forgive her.
AM radio is the simplest, most long range method of mass communications. With a single large transmitter it can cover over 10,000 square miles. An FM signal can’t travel anywhere that far. As for cell phones, the tower range is less than 25 miles, often much less in urban areas. Since it’s a two way communication, cell towers have very limited number of simultaneous users. An AM signal can be received by millions of radios simultaneously.
Merv, any number of things can “take out” cell service and make it not work. A simple station hundreds of miles away can communicate by AM radio. I doubt if cell service is working very well in Gaza right now, but AM radio might be.
Are permanent magnet motors more efficient than those with with copper wound fields and rotors, or are the just cheaper? Do any car motors use aluminum windings, or do they use only copper?
Abermarle,
Especially in times of distress, AM is superior because a very low power base station can communicate over a very large distance. Cell towers would be offline fairly rapidly making them a very poor choice in times of an emergency. When the eastern sea board power grid was offline for several days, the Cell towers were running off of battery power and they all became offline within a couple of hours of the power grid going down. It is sad, but we have to think about a scenario where a significant event is going to take things like cell towers, the internet, and FM stations off line for long periods of time leaving AM the only effective choice of communication.
I also do not believe that it is costing an extra billion dollars to keep AM radios in a vehicle. That is something used by the Auto lobbyist to try and remove AM. A scare tactic as it were. Even if it did though, I would rather have spent that billion dollars and have communication during a significant event than not have it. Of course, a significant event that takes the cell towers off line also means that nobody is charging their electric cars either.
I’m wondering if some of the broadcasters are behind encouraging the automotive industry to ditch AM radio. Everyone them have FM radio stations that make lots of money whereas their AM stations are a drag. Many AM stations in the major centres have packed it in
The B.S. meter spiked on this 3.8 B number to shield AM signals on EVs for the next 6 years. Since this only applies to the US and EVs only account for 6-7% of sales now and is projected to be 25-30% by 2030. Not to mention I can go on Amazon right now and buy shielded wire and filters for $25. Probably double what it would cost the manufacturers.
It’s a small price to pay for the security it provides. Seems maybe somewhat paranoid or alarmist to think it’s needed but I’m just reminded in so many disaster movies where communication systems get disrupted and we have to resort to CB, Ham and even morse code. Reminds us that sometimes the old tried and true systems work best in a time of need. Removing AM because its rarely used and EVs want to exude this futuristic persona and requires some modifications to receive a clear signal doesn’t seem like a good enough reason compared to the benefits it provides. It’s like insurance and you hope you never need it but when you do need it, you’ll be glad it’s there. I’m not sure off hand if I even own a hand-held AM radio in my home now. My phone is my alarm clock and so that was last AM receiver I had at home I believe. If the Emergency Broadcast system was in effect, I would likely have to rely on my car or truck to listen in.
I believe that giving employees company shares is a great idea. The D3 should adopt this as an option to the annual profit sharing. Having shares in the company incentivize the employees to do a good job, have interest in the company doing well and provides them some ownership in where they work. Not to mention voting rights and a voice when it comes to company direction.
This is an interesting article on the environmental impact of EVs. It states that EV drivers are driving fewer miles than their ICE counterparts. The increased environmental impacts required to make the EV are not being offset as a result. All the studies showing how EVs were overall better for the environment, including those shown on this show, were based on people driving the same number of miles as their ICE counterparts, which they are not doing. As people are buying them as second/third vehicles due to the limitations of EVs with range and charging times/infrastructure, that offset is not occurring. Thusly it is making an EV purchase worse for the environment. A few posters here warned about this being a possibility, but nobody was listening. Just more proof that the law of unintended consequences is always at play.
https://www.slashgear.com/1439840/early-ev-adopters-driving-less-than-ice-drivers/
MERKUR, I’m not surprised about EVs being driven fewer miles, on average, than ICErs. I’d have an EV if I had home charging. It would make a lot of trips, but I would not use it for long road trips, which make up about half of my total mileage.
What the article neglected to mention, is that the use EVs are likely to see, is where they are at their best in efficiency, and save the most fuel. EVs are as efficient, or more efficient in short trip and stop-and-go driving as they are in highway driving. On the other hand, the huge pickups and SUVs so dominant in the US would get single digit mpg for most of my driving, with very short trips, but would get in the ~20 mpg on the highway. Removing the big gas hogs from short trip and stop-and-go use is what would reduce emissions the most. I suspect EVs are doing doing some of that.
I’m becoming even more of a fan of hybrids. I have an FWD Toyota Highlander hybrid, and a Mini Cooper S. The Mini is the current one with a BMW 2.0 turbo, mildly tuned with 189 hp. Under most conditions, the much bigger, much heavier Highlander hybrid gets better mpg than the Mini. The exception is highish speed driving on the interstate, where the Mini does slightly better. The Highlander gets ~33 mpg for my 1100 mile trips between Indiana and Florida, and the Mini gets ~35. The Highlander does significantly better for driving consisting of mostly short trips. Of course, both do much better than a Corvette, especially with short trips and stop-an-go.
Kit,
That is the twist of fate for current BEV technology. BEVs work great for people who will spend their time in cities. The twist of fate is that those persons have limited charging available and drive the fewest miles thus hurting the environment if they were to buy one.
For me personally, I would like a PHEV with at least 100 miles of electric range and reasonable fuel economy outside of that. Like a Volt or BZ4X, but with higher electric range. That would meet 100% of my use case. I can charge at home and work though so that would likely not work for you and that is OK. I think our transportation needs to be a mix of all technology. BEVs have their place along with ICE and Hybrids/PHEVs. It is rarely all or nothing in any aspect of life.
There is another article about BEV garbage trucks in new york switching back to diesel. Turns out that in new york they put snow plow blades on garbage trucks so that they run them year round. Even though the batteries worked well for garbage duty with lots of regeneration, it did not work at all for snow plow duties. The increased load for plowing and reduced range in cold temps, meant that the typical 12 hour run time required for diesel plows was reduced down to 3 for the electric plow. That would require a quadruple amount of vehicles, and drivers, which would be more expensive than just running diesel plows/garbage trucks. So they are switching back.
A BEV would work for most of my driving during my 5 months in Indiana in the summer, but not where I spend 7 months in Florida. I might have considered a Highlander Prime PHEV, if it existed, but it doesn’t.
Does New York use all of their garbage trucks for plowing? If not, I’d think a mix of electric and diesel trucks would make sense. I’m not surprised that plowing would completely kill the run time of the electric trucks.
I like AM radio. But when the stations urge us to lobby the government on their behalf to mandate AM radios in cars, they tout all the information they provide, and don’t mention that about 50% (or more?) of their broadcast time is advertisements. Nor do they offer to reduce that percentage to enlist our support.